Surrey Board of Trade stays away from Sheraton Guildford

SURREY—The Surrey Board of Trade is the latest Sheraton Vancouver Guildford Hotel customer to take its business elsewhere during a strike by hospitality workers represented by Unifor Local 3000.

“The customer disruption is entirely the making of an employer who refuses to negotiate and make a fair offer for these workers,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President. “This strike could end tomorrow if the Sheraton Guildford owner wanted to sign a contract that respects hard-working hotel workers.”

Legal job action began at 4:01 a.m. on Tuesday, May 1. Since then, major bookings at the hotel have been moved—including an event with Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner—as several organizations choose to respect the Unifor Local 3000 picket line. Unifor represents 120 workers in all areas of the hotel including guest services, the lounge, banquets, kitchen, laundry, room attendants, and maintenance.

Unifor will ramp up efforts with a rally at the hotel this coming Thursday, on May 10 at 4 p.m.

“It is critically important for organizations to move their events to other hotels during this dispute,” said Jean Van Vliet, Unifor Local 3000 president. “A strike is never our first choice for resolving a dispute, but this owner’s disrespectful bargaining tactics have left us with few other options to achieve a fair contract.”